Pregnant women to get Pfizer vaccine

PREGNANT women past their first trimester may soon be offered the Pfizer vaccine, said epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds.

He was speaking on Wednesday at the Ministry of Health's virtual update on its covid19 response.

Last Thursday, a donation from the United States of 305,370 doses of WHO-approved Pfizer BioNTech vaccine arrived in Trinidad.

Hinds said this decision was taken on Tuesday at a meeting between Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and officials from regional health authoritiess, PAHO and CARPHA, plus obstetricians/gynaecologists and neonatal intensive care unit specialists, across the public and the private sector.

The talks were led by Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram and director of the Directorate of Women's Health Dr Adesh Sirjusingh, he said.

"After reviewing the scientific information as well as presentations by the PAHO/WHO, there was universal consensus that the ministry was indeed in a position to recommend the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for pregnant women beyond the first trimester (three months) of pregnancy."

Hinds said details on the rollout of this move would be given by Sirjusingh at the ministry's next briefing.

"But we can say consensus has been reached, so we are moving towards that."

Hinds confirmed his position in a reply to a later question as to what would happen to any excess doses of Pfizer.

At present 300,000 doses are available to give two doses to each of an estimated 100,000 schoolchildren, which Newsday calculated would give a surplus of 100,000 doses to vaccinate 50,000 additional people.

"The current policy with respect to the usage of the Pfizer vaccine is that it is being used to target the paediatric population, that 12-18 population, and as just announced, there will also be consideration for utilisation in the pregnant population, and more detail on that will be released by the appropriate directorate," Hinds said.

He said to date there was no additional change in respect of who else will be able to access the vaccine. "If any changes come up, then those will of course be brought to the attention of the public via these means and via various press releases.

"So right now, between the paediatric population and the pregnant population, that is the extent to which the utilisation of that Pfizer stock has been allocated."